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Shayne knocks on the door to Courtney's apartment.
He's been watching them officially for a while now, and he loves it.
Having a stable caregiving relationship was making him feel so relaxed, and he loves the extra time with Courtney.
And they're such a cute kid. Normally hovering around four years old, they're a little firecracker. Wanting to play and explore, bravely trying new things and asking for what they want.
He knocks again.
Usually they would open the door instantly, already regressed, despite him always asking them to wait. Their excuse always being they're so excited and it's an accident.
Today they don't answer the door.
He knocks a third time.
No response.
He takes a deep breath, concerned about what's happening on the other side of the door. He decides to trust his instincts and grabs his emergency key, opening the front door.
He rushes in and looks at the couch in surprise, pushing the door shut behind him.
There's Courtney, asleep on the couch, thumb in their mouth, face looking slightly wet from crying.
He walks hesitantly towards them.
It's just past breakfast time, and usually they'd be running in circles around him, itching to play.
His first guess is they're sick, but he knows they'd message him if that was the case. The thumb is also new, he's never seen them have any interest in putting their fingers in their mouth.
Deciding to let the day run its course, he pulls out his book he reads while they nap and sits in a chair, deciding to see what happens
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Only about 15 minutes later he sees them move in the corner of his eye.
He places his book down and walks over to crouch next to the couch.
“Hey Courtney,” he coos quietly and the little's eyes flutter open and look at him.
They stare at him sleepily, thumb still in their mouth, with a small smile hiding behind it.
He looks into their eyes and notices that they're unfocused. Like they can see him, but aren't looking at him.
“Oh” he whispers to himself, “You're a baby, huh?”
They smile, making a small cooing sound from behind their thumb.
“I can do this.” He says, deciding to talk to them like they can understand. “First let's try to find you a better outfit.” He murmurs
They'd dressed themself in red basketball shorts and a pale blue sweater with little hearts, which was adorable, but not baby appropriate.
He lifts them into his arms and carries them the short distance to their bedroom. He places them in the center of the bed, moving the pillows to either side of them.
“I don't know if you’ll roll, but I'm not taking any chances,” he explains, running a hand through their hair. They kick their legs lightly, making quiet sounds to themself.
He smiles at them and turns away, walking to their closet to search for clothes.
The two had discussed this before thankfully. He knew tiny Courtney was an option, but that especially this little, was rare.
They'd had an in-depth discussion about everything they could foresee happening, with boundaries and protocol for each one.
First he looks at their little pajamas and tries to pick a pair. He decides on the one long sleeve bodysuit he sees at the bottom, before grabbing a pair of matching blue socks, and turning to look through the miscellaneous little supplies they have in there.
He deliberates for a minute before grabbing a pullup and a pacifier, before carrying everything back to them.
They haven't moved much, only knocking the pillows away from themself slightly.
They smile at him, letting out a quiet ‘ah’.
“I'm back,” he coos, “It's time for Shayne to get you dressed.”
This is something he's never done before. Little Courtney was staunchly independent, shooing him away when they changed their clothes before bed. But they'd confirmed that if they couldn't do it, he could help them.
So he takes another deep breath and jumps into it, narrating the whole thing.
“One arm, Two arms! Good job! Let's get your legs next” he narrates enthusiastically, continuing until they're fully dressed, thumb now replaced with a green pacifier.
He smiles down at them, lightly tickling their tummy.
They erupt into giggles and he grins, pressing a gentle kiss on their cheek.
Shayne stares at them, not knowing what to do next and they stare right back, babbling quietly to themself.
He assumes they ate breakfast, so now time’s kind of free until lunch. Reaching above them on the bed, he grabs their beloved stuffed lobster and hands it to them, quickly going back to the closet to grab a fuzzy blanket.
He grabs the little and carries them to the living room, holding them in his lap as he looks at his phone on the couch.
Not wanting to just put a screen in their face and just being curious, he decides to pull up the standard little age identification chart.
It's a simplified version of expected milestones for children. The main difference between the two being that littles have those skills, it's just whether they have access to them.
Like with kids, no little is the same, but Shayne figures this could be helpful for him, or at the very least, stimulating for them.
He jumps down to the bottom of the chart, straight to the two and under sections, deciding to start there.
“I don't think you're running today, are you?” He asks jokingly, standing up with them in his arms.
He lowers their feet to the floor so they're standing, holding them up by their armpits.
“Wanna stand for me?” He asks curiously, adjusting his hands to see if they’ll immediately tip over.
They start to lean over and whine, so he picks them back up. “Alright, no independent standing, that's ok,” he says, moving them over to the wall. He tries the same thing, except letting them hold themself up on the wall, and they stand.
“That's so good!” He cheers, scooping them back up into their arms, eliciting giggles from them. They babble quietly and he laughs.
“You're so quiet, princess. You gotta speak up” he tells them jokingly.
They screech in his ear and giggle.
“You little- you can understand me, and just weren't responding this whole time? You little hellion.” He jokes, poking their nose.
He knows they have just gotten older since he got there, that they weren't ignoring him, but it's funnier to pretend it was on purpose.
They giggle again, kicking their feet lightly.
“I'm continuing the test, unless you object?” He asks and they don't respond, so he continues.
“So you’re standing with support, I bet you can sit up too,” he says, placing them on the couch, away from the back.
They immediately tip over, giggling.
“You're cheating!” He accuses, sitting them back up, but they immediately fall over again, giggling.
He repeats this several times until they stay sitting, bored of the game. “I knew you could sit!” he tells them, fixing their hair. “And you've got Horsey, so you can definitely grab things,” he adds, checking the chart again.
“You can understand me, so that's older.” He mumbles to himself, before continuing through the list.
After being able to do most of the things on the list, he arbitrarily placed them at 11 months. Was it what an actual psychologist would say? He highly doubts it, but this was for fun.
They'd been able to kind of follow instructions, but were unable to communicate verbally or non verbally, seemingly only able to communicate their emotions and babble a bit.
After taking them to the bathroom successfully, he brings them back to the living room, placing them on the couch. “Lemme see if there's any toys for you,” he says, quickly rifling through the toy box in the living room and finding a small bin labeled ‘baby’.
He brings the bin to them and opens it, letting them grab what they want from inside.
Courtney immediately grabs a toy flip-phone, clumsily pressing the buttons and giggling.
Shayne moves the bin away and grins, watching them play.
Their attention is fully on the toy, sucking happily on the pacifier between giggles, and his attention is fully on them.
They stay engaged for a surprisingly long time before they let out a whine, looking over at Shayne.
“What’s wrong?” he asks quietly, pulling them into his lap. They whine again, tears welling in their eyes.
He looks at them alarmed, rubbing their back. “You’re ok, baby. It’s ok.” he whispers, desperately trying to figure out what's wrong. He spots the clock and sighs in relief, standing up with them in his arms.
“You’re hungry, huh?” he coos, “I think it’s lunch and nap time.”
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After fumbling in the kitchen for a while he returns to the couch with a meal replacement drink in a bottle.
He wraps them up loosely in their blanket, and cradles them in his arm, quickly switching the pacifier for the bottle.
They’d calmed down slightly as he prepared their lunch, but they don't fully calm down until they’re finally eating, looking up at Shayne with love reflecting through their eyes.
“There we go,” he murmurs, carefully holding the bottle at the correct angle, “You’re doing so good.”
He continues to whisper to them as they drink, smiling down lovingly.
They finish drinking and he switches the pacifier back as they blink blearily at him.
“Let’s get you into bed.” he whispers, standing up and walking to their room.
He carefully rearranges the pillows before placing them in the middle of them and fixing their blanket,
“Good night princess” he whispers, kissing their forehead.
They smile sleepily at him and make a cooing sound before letting their eyes flutter shut.
He watches them for a few minutes before straightening and deciding what to do. Normally he’d sit in the living room, but he doesn’t want to leave them unattended, so he quietly drags the chair into the bedroom and reads his book, frequently looking up to check on the baby.
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Courtney wakes up confused.
They’re surrounded by so much stuff.
They notice the pacifier in their mouth and start sucking on it as they open their eyes, pulling themself into a sitting position.
“Hey sweetheart,” says Shayne from the corner and they jump slightly,
“Scare me Shay,” they accuse and he chuckles, standing up.
“I wasn’t trying to” he assures them “Fuzz check?”
They hum as they think, “Wanna play Smash Bros,” they tell him, finally spitting the pacifier out.
Because they have such a fluid age range, they give Shayne a vibe, and wanting to play a video game is a sign they’re on the older side.
“We can do that,” he agrees, “Do you wanna change first?”
They look down and huff, “Was wearin hearts,” they grumble and he laughs, grabbing their clothes from earlier.
“I saved it for you,” he says, handing the clothes to them. “You can change and I’ll set up the Switch.”
“Ok Shay!” they chirp, climbing out of the bed before attempting to shove him out the door.
He laughs and lets them, grabbing the door frame to pretend to hold himself in.
They giggle and he drops his hands.
“I’ll see you for a battle, twerp.” he tells them, closing the door.
Courtney opens the door and yells after them,
“Gonna kick your butt!”